


Don't give up hope

by LazuliShark



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Bending (Avatar), Dabi is a Todoroki, How Do I Tag, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Todoroki Enji | Endeavor's Bad Parenting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:01:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22699825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LazuliShark/pseuds/LazuliShark
Summary: Twenty years have passed since the Avatar was killed. Many people believe that the Avatar cycle was broken and that the world has lost its symbol of peace.But I haven't given up hope.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> First of all - big love to my wonderful friend for helping me out by editing this fic. Go give em some love @Swordcats on Tumblr! 
> 
> Please enjoy!

Earth, Fire, Air, Water.

These are the four elements that make up our world. Some of us are lucky enough to control the elements with the ancient art of bending.  
The Avatar is the master of all four elements and the world’s symbol of peace - the bridge between humanity and the spirits.

Twenty years ago the previous Avatar, Toshinori Yagi, was killed by a man only known as All for One who was determined to rid the world of the Avatar forever.  
Some believe that the Avatar cycle was broken and that All for One was successful. But I haven’t given up hope.

My name is Izuku Midoriya. I believe the Avatar is still out there. I’m going to find them, and help them become the new symbol of peace.


	2. A New Avatar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After many years without one, the new Avatar has revealed himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again a big thanks to my friend @ Swordcats on Tumblr for editing for me!
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> T/W in this one for abuse and injuries and stuff but I feel like its to be expected when writing the Todoroki family.

When I was five, my life changed. I’d already shown my ability to waterbend - inherited from my mother. Just like my older siblings Fuyumi and Natsuo. 

My father and my eldest brother, Touya, were in the garden practising their firebending forms. 

I remember at that age not seeing a lot of my father. He spent the majority of his time training Touya and not paying attention to me or my other siblings. My big brother Touya was powerful; father would say he was a prodigy. Even at ten years old, Touya had the incredible ability to produce blue flames. They would flash a searing heat that could be felt deep under your skin, but I wasn't afraid. From what I remember, he was a kind brother then.

I watched them in the garden as they trained. I wanted to be like them. Father threw a punch. Fire. Touya threw a punch. Fire. Copying, I threw a punch. _Fire_. 

Touya had noticed me watching. He noticed me firebend. 

“Shouto!” He stopped what he was doing - shocked. “Did you jus- did you just firebend?” 

I didn’t understand what had just happened. I was quiet. 

“Father! Did you see that? Shouto was firebending!” 

I’ll never forget the way my father looked as he turned around. The smile across his face should be a happy memory but looking back it was so... sinister. 

From that day onwards my father pushed my training. He said this meant his plan had worked and that I was the Avatar. After ten years without one, the world finally had a new Avatar. At first, I was excited - I had no clue what was about to happen. 

I remember my mother being scared of my father. After I began to train with him, it seemed she wanted to avoid me as well. She didn’t like big brother Touya either - he reminded her of our father. 

I didn’t learn until I was a lot older, but my mother had been forced into an arranged marriage with my father. As a child she had been blessed by the moon spirit in the northern water tribe, causing her hair to grow white instead of brown. My father knew that the next Avatar was to be born into the water tribe and he believed my mother’s connection to the spirits would make her more likely to bear a child that would become the Avatar. Did his plan work? Potentially. It may have been an unfortunate coincidence but who’s to say. 

My upbringing consisted of my father's brutal training in firebending, and the best waterbending master he could find. My father told very few people that I was the Avatar - rumours were spread, sure, but to the majority of the world there was no Avatar. His plan was to reveal me to the world once I was sixteen and had mastered two of the elements. 

Mother would try to defend me from him as Father’s so-called ‘training’ often left me blistered and bruised. On one occasion, his session went from brutal to downright barbaric. He left me on the floor, curled up and crying into my own vomit. The world was blurred around me, everything but the excruciating thunder of my stomach feeling distant and dull.

“Enji please stop! He’s only six years old - you don’t need to push him so hard!” A sharp slap broke through the fog. I never looked up from the ground. 

“Stop interrupting.” I heard my father say in a voice that was almost too calm. 

When I was nine, the cruelty of my father had taken its toll on my mother. I couldn’t forget the day if I tried. Believe me, I’ve tried. Mother seemed stressed about something when father and I walked into the kitchen. She was making tea while Fuyumi was sitting at the table talking to her about school. I tried to show them the firebending I was learning (in hindsight - probably the last thing she needed to see). I think that was the moment something snapped within her. As I began she gripped the counter - steadying herself. I kicked into the air and a small burst of fire appeared, immediately followed by a searing pain to the left side of my face. _Did I burn myself?_ I thought. No, I’d felt the red lick of flames before but this was different. Falling to the ground I screamed. 

“Rei!” _Father?_ “What have you done?” his voice boomed over the sound of my cries.

“Shouto! Shouto it’s going to be ok” Mothers frantic hands were on me. The once scalding water thrown at me now being frozen into ice as mother attempted to cool the burn she had inflicted. The extreme change was almost too much and I think that’s where I blacked out.

I didn’t see my mother again after that.

When I was ten, Touya ran away from home. While our mother feared Touya’s power, she still cared for him in her own way. When she was sent away that hurt him. It hurt all of us but I do feel as though he held me to blame for it. Father said that Touya cared too much. That he was too emotional. Gradually, after finding out that I was the Avatar, father gave Touya less and less attention. He was attending our training sessions less and less until eventually, he was never there. One day, father and I went outside to train. Touya was already there, doing the same. He was pushing himself to his limit - desperate to remain the prodigy our father could be proud of. We continued with our regular training while the heat from Touya grew hotter and hotter. Sweat beads building on my brow. 

“Touya,” Father spoke with his regular booming voice.Touya jolted, surprised that he was actually getting attention for once “Don’t overdo it.” Typical. The acknowledgement was laced with criticism.

“Oh, talking to me now are you _father_?” speaking in a calm tone and continuing with his forms. He threw a punch. Fire. That’s the thing about Touya - when he was mad he wouldn’t shout, but you could tell he was fuming. “Do you think I’m incapable of knowing what I can handle?” He kicked. More fire. I stopped - watching the flames around him grow bigger and hotter. 

“You’re distracting Shouto. Go back inside.” Father said. This did something to Touya. He didn’t stop. The flames continued to grow around him as he himself was encapsulated by blue. 

Everything was a blur after that. Touya was badly burned. Burns ran up his arms, across his torso, over his face, down his neck, arms and back. Fuyumi did her best to try and care for him but even her waterbending couldn’t heal the years of neglect that was now angrily seared into his red flesh. I tried to talk to him after that but he was cold towards me. The caring older brother I once knew was gone. 

He hadn’t fully healed, but about a week later Touya was nowhere to be found. 

Now, I’m fifteen. I’ve mastered waterbending and my firebending is almost at the same level. Over the years I have grown to resent my father for the fear he instilled in my mother; the neglect towards Fuyumi and Natsuo; the treatment of Touya that caused him to leave us; and how i can never firebend without the remnants of his cruel taunts threatening to overwhelm me. 

I’ve decided that I don’t want my father's plan to work. I don’t want to be the Avatar. I don’t want to be the new symbol of peace if it means being a puppet for my father's will. 

Taking a leaf from Touya’s book, I too have made the decision to run away. If my big brother could be out in the world on his own when he was fifteen - so can I. I’m sure of it. Honestly, I don’t know how he’s doing. For all I know his wounds were so bad he could’ve died right after leaving, but something tells me he’s still out there. The thought of leaving Fuyumi and Natsuo alone in this house with that monster hurts, but I know I’m doing the right thing. 

Tonight after everybody goes to sleep, I will steal some money from my father and board the first ship I can find out of the fire nation. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading this far!
> 
> I don't expect the following chapters to be as heavy as parts of this one were but I had to set up that initial angst yknow.
> 
> Again - Constructive crit is welcomed! This is my first fic so be gentle :')

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> Any constructive crit will be appreciated but this is my first fic so please be gentle :')


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